"Only the foolish take junior banking jobs in Paris and Frankfurt"
I am not English, and yet I have built my banking career in London working for a US bank. I appreciate that this is becoming increasingly difficult for a new generation of young Europeans and yet if you can make your banking career in London, I would urge you to do so.
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London isn't just a bigger financial centre with more banking jobs than Paris and Frankfurt, it also has far better exit opportunities than European centres.
If you want to work in private equity in particular, it's far easier to do so in London. The UK alone accounted for 34% of European buyouts by value last year, according to PWC. That compares to 15%, 12% and 11% for Germany, Italy and France respectively. And even when target companies are in continental Europe, the funds involved are typically in London.
This makes a difference to banking associates looking for private equity exits. It's always difficult to move from banking to private equity, but in Paris, Frankfurt or Madrid, it's degrees of magnitude harder. The private equity job market in those cities is tiny, and it usually employs native language speakers.
This is why you see many people stuck in mid-level banking jobs in Europe. I know of many directors and VPs who've been in their jobs there for 15 years simply because there's nothing else. They can't move to other banks easily, banks can't fire them, and there are no exits to the buy-side.
European jobs might be tempting in the short term. But they have long term career implications. Avoid where you can.
Jakob Pohl is the pseudonym of a VP at a major US bank
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